Daydreams
by La Fuego
Summary: The moment felt so totally surreal to you... as though you were walking in the cloudy haze of one of your daydreams. And then, as it is with your daydreams, reality asserts itself in the most brutal of ways... AtoJi with a twist of Drama


**Title:** Daydreams  
**Genre:** Angst, Romance (again, of a lop-sided sort)  
**Fandom: **Prince of Tennis  
**Pairing:** Atobe/Jirou  
**Disclaimers: **All Konomi-sensei's. Didn't make money off of this. Don't sue.  
**Summary: **"The moment felt so totally surreal to you-- as though you were walking in the cloudy haze of one of your daydreams. And then, as it is with your daydreams, reality asserts itself in the most brutal of ways..."

**Author's Notes: **The second "fist kiss" fic request that I finished. This one is written for the wonderful **pinksnow**.

* * *

First Kiss Series 

**Daydreams **

"So this is where you've been," you say by way of greeting, as you make to sit down beside him. He shifts to his side as you gracefully settle down on the grass beside him.

"You missed tennis practice again today," you start out in a scolding tone, but the second you look over at his unconcerned face, the delicate smile playing on his lips, that slight irritation you've been feeling all throughout the afternoon practices evaporate. You mutter under your breath instead, "You're lucky Ore-sama is in a forgiving mood today," as you regally flick your hair out of your face.

A sound that was half grunt, half hum was his only reply, and you just have to shake your head. How does he do that? How can he manage to shrug off everything like nothing matters? How can he seem to find contentment in whatever he is doing at that moment?

"I want to eat some cake with you," he absently murmured.

…Or maybe not.

You bite back a smile at that. No! You're supposed to maintain your stern façade. Things cannot keep going like this. As it is, everybody on the team is already starting to complain that "Buchou is always going soft on Jirou-senpai" or that "Atobe, you're spoiling Jirou too much". So this time, you have to make it clear to him; you have to assert your authority.

"Oi, Jirou!" You start out in your sternest voice, hand ready to shake some sense into him if necessary, but then you commit the same mistake within the span of the last five minutes: you look him in the face.

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That beautiful, soft strawberry blond hair being playfully toyed with by the slight breeze, the gentle arch of his eyebrows, the dusky shadows his eyelashes cast on his cheeks, the naturally sensual pout of his lips… everything about him just drew you deeper and deeper in to him.

As though it had a mind of its own, your hand gravitates towards his face to cup that soft cheek. The slight smile playing on his lips widened marginally as he instinctively leaned into the gentle warmth of your palm, a soft sigh of pleasure escaping him.

That sigh became your undoing. Without thinking, you lean into him. The touch of your lips to his was the barest of contacts; feather-light, as though it was a figment of your imagination. But even so, you feel his lips curl up at the ends in a smile of triumph against yours. The moment felt so totally surreal to you—as though you were walking in the cloudy haze of one of your daydreams. And then, as it is with your daydreams, reality asserts itself in the most brutal of ways…

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"Marui-kun…" he lets out in a breathy whisper.

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You pull away from him in horror.

You stare at him in angry confusion for what felt like an eternity before giving in to the urge to laugh at yourself. Of course! What else could you have been expecting? That he would suddenly turn to you and profess his undying love?

Slowly, you get up to your feet, still chuckling in self-mockery. You look down once more at the beauty that is Akutagawa Jirou before you nudge him, none too gently, with your foot, "Oi Jirou! Just how long do you intend to sleep?! Get up!"

A whiny moan was his only reply as he turned over and tried to fall deeper into sleep.

Another nudge with your foot, "So help me, Jirou, if I have to do this one more time, you'll be running laps around the courts until you're 65! Get up!"

Finally, he slowly sat up. He languidly stretched and lazily rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he gave a jaw-popping yawn.

"Ugh!" You sniffed disdainfully. "You _will_ cover your mouth when you yawn in Ore-sama's presence!"

"Mou, Atobe! You could have waited a few more minutes before waking me up," he complained. "I was having a really nice dream too!"

"I'll bet," you shot back at him. "You talk in your sleep, you know that?"

You watch as a slow blush crept over his cheeks. "I… I do not!" he answered defensively.

You just smile smugly at him before you turn around and walk away. You hear him scramble to get up and go after you.

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"Ne, ne, Atobe… Did I say anything… weird while I was asleep?" he asks you uncertainly as soon as he caught up with you.

"Perhaps…" you answer with a non-committal shrug. It doesn't matter, really. You figure that with what happened earlier, Jirou could have confessed to prancing around his room in nothing but his sister's underwear and he still wouldn't come close to feeling as mortified as you do now.

Still, at the back of your mind, even if a part of you already knows the painfully obvious answer, you wonder just how much differently that first kiss with him would have gone if you tried it while he was awake…

_owari_

La Fuego

09/23/2007


End file.
